Five held for extorting money from people after recording ‘obscene’ WhatsApp video calls

New Delhi: Three men were arrested and two juveniles apprehended for allegedly extorting money from people after recording their obscene WhatsApp video calls and blackmailing them, police said on Monday.

The major accused have been identified as Rahul Khan (26) and Azad (41), residents of Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, and Arman (21), a resident of Alwar district, they said. The accused used photographs of Delhi Police officials as profile pictures on their WhatsApp and Truecaller accounts. They also used to introduce themselves as police officials of cyber police stations, police said.

The accused have extorted over Rs 40 lakh from several people using chats/video calls on WhatsApp and Facebook in the last three to four months, police said.

A 67-year-old man lodged a complaint alleging that on February 18, he received a Whatsapp video call from an unknown number in which a girl was doing an obscene act. After some time, the complainant started receiving extortion calls, a senior police officer said.

Some people then introduced themselves as officials of a cyber police station and tried to extort money from him. They told the man that if he does not transfer the money, they would circulate his nude video over social media, the officer said.

The complainant transferred a total of Rs 13.70 lakh to the bank accounts of the accused, police said. During investigation, police checked the bank details and phone numbers of the fraudsters. Several raids were conducted at Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan and three people were arrested

and two juveniles apprehended, DCP(Shahdara) Rohit

Meena said.

The accused persons disclosed that they used to make WhatsApp video calls to victims and started playing an obscene video of a girl using a second mobile phone and provoke the victim to do the same. The accused persons then recorded the video call, the DCP said.

Thereafter, one of them used to call the victim claiming himself as the SHO of a cyber police station. He told the victim that a complaint has been registered by a girl against him, police said.

Later, another person used to call the victim by threatening that they would share his alleged video on social media and demanded money to remove the video, the police said.

The accused had purchased Sim cards and mobile phones from West Bengal and managed their bank accounts with the help of other co-accused persons, they said.